Paestum

In the shadow of the temples, the city of Poseidon

«At last, when we were doubting whether we were passing through rocks or ruins, some great oblong masses enabled us to distinguish the remains of temples, and other monuments of a once splendid city.». 

Goethe

Few days ago, local limestone blocks have been brought to light, which belonged to the ancient Porta Aurea. It is the only one which has been destroyed of the four great access doors to the ancient Poseidonia, the new city dedicated to Poseidon, which the Greeks from Sybaris founded in Piana del Sele in 600 BC. Not only the favorable geographical position in relation to the trade routes with the Orient had led them to that place, but also the fertility of the plain and the presence of the river. The new polis had also a fast development, but the best period started in the 6th century, corresponding with the escape of the rich Sybarites from their town conquered by Crotone in 510 BC. They were the ones who invested in a great urban expansion, including also the construction, over a century, of large temples in the city centre, which expanded all around over an area of twelve hectares. In order to defend the trapezoidal perimeter, an imposing city wall was built, and represents today one of the best preserved works of Magna Graecia. Along the walls, there are twenty-eight towers of stone blocks, of which obvious ruins remain, and, in addition to secondary smaller doors, four great access doors at the cardinal points: Porta Giustizia, Porta Marina, Porta Sirena and Porta Aurea, the only one destroyed by the road to Calabria.

Among the temples, the so-called “market” opened: the agora, the main square where there was also the empty tomb of the legendary founder of Poseidonia. Around the temples and the market, the areas of habitations and shops expanded. The ones we can see today date back to the imperial period, between the 1st and the 5th century A.D, while there is still a lot to discover about the Greek settlement.

The beautiful and rich city of Magna Graecia soon attracted the interest of the Lucanian neighbours who, probably in a progressive and non bellicose way, in 400 BC, succeeded in taking possession of Poseidonia, which they renamed Paistom. In addition to passing from Greek to Oscan, there were many others changes: in the material culture, the funeral rituals, the lifestyle. But the sacredness of the temples was confirmed and the city continued to thrive economically and continued to nurture its artistic traditions.

In 273 BC, the Lucanians had to surrender to the Roman rule, and Paistom became Paestum and underwent another great transformation. The inhabitants showed to be faithful allies of Rome to whom they had to provide arms and sailors if needed, as they significantly did during the Punic wars, and they got the right to mint coins. The new forum was built in place of the agora, as well as several public buildings, the Temple of Peace and the Temple of Virile Fortune. But with the opening of the Via Appia and Via Popilia, Paestum was cut off from the connections with the East, first blow to its wealth and power. Then the phenomenon of swamping started from the area closer to the sea more and more inland , because of the river Salso also known as Capodifiume, which still flows close to the Southern walls where Porta Giustizia is located and a small bridge from the 4th century BC. The population was forced to retreat to the highest parts, such as the Temple of Ceres. The Malaria epidemic of the 9th century AD and the Saracen raids was the final blow: Inhabitants of Paestun were pushed to the mountains, abandoning Posidonia forever.

The great solitary temples in the countryside attracted occasionally the attention of poets and intellecutals and different quotations were dedicated to them in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth century works. The State Road 18 built by Charles III of Bourbon passing through the temples and in the eighteenth century, Paestum became an unmissable stop of the Grand Tour, visited by Goethe, Shelley, Canova e Piranesi, who portrayed the ruins in beautiful tables.

The archaeological excavation started in 1907. Between the 60s and the 70s, the excavation campaigns were focused on the necropolis. The splendid Grave of the Tuffatore (480-470 BC) was rediscovered. It was the only example of non vascular Greek paiting, and the tombs frescoed with sophisticated objects of the rich Lucanians. With the finding of highly precious pieces of great ceramic masters such as Assteas, Python and the so called Aphrodite Painter. On 27th of November 1952, the National Archaeological Museum of Pestum was opened. It illustrates fundamental phases of the prehistoric city life, both Lucanian and Roman

The visit to the city of Paestum follows a route which starts with the famous three temples, masterpieces of the Greek art, of which, together with the counterparts of Athens and Agrigento, are the best preserved examples come down to us. The Temple of Hera, the so-called Basilica because it was wrongly classified as a Roman building, is the most ancient of the three, built in 560 BC. In Doric style, the peripteral is fifty-five meters long and twenty-six meters wide. Fifty years later, the smallest Temple of Ceres was built, in 510, actually dedicated to Athens. Its particularity is the high pediment and the frieze is made of limestone blocks and has doric columns in the peristyle and ionic in the cell. With Christianity, it has been transformed into the church of the Annunziata and there are three Christian toms. The geant of the three sacred edifices, which Winckelmann indicated as the living testimony of how Greek art has to be considered at the origin of occidental art, is the Temple of Poseidon of 460 BC, probably dedicated to Hera, Zeus and Apollo, all in travertine, with a discreet golden color, which changes reflections according to the time and the season. It has been compared for majesty to the temple of Zeus at Olympia, a riot of the doric style with the peculiarity of having nine columns on the front, while in the temples of a later period, they are always in even number. The itinerary continues along Via Sacra, entirely paved on the preexisting Greek plan, and reached the Roman Forum with public edifices, shops, a stoa, an octagonal building which is maybe a macellum, the curia and remains of the Thermae. And further, the Italic Temple, the Roman Capitolium and a part of the amphitheatre, only partly visible, the Greek structure which kept the aerarium with the treasury of the city and the Sanctuary of the Virile Fortune with a large pool, where fertility rites took place for the celebrations in honor of Venus.

Paestum area is one of the Unesco World Heritage Sites since 1998.